i salute chairman steve israel, as i did yesterday. being a spectacular field marshal in all of this. i commend all of my leaders and co-leader steny hoyer and so many members of the leadership, steny hoyer, john clyburn, mr. becerra. the list goes on and on. and the women who traveled into districts. we were thinking that it was possible and it was. i would say one disappointment that i have is that medicare message, which was at stake, was so misrepresented by the republicans that the public was confused. people would say, why are the democrats want -- we weren't. democrats used savings of medicare to extend it for another decade, to provide benefits immediately. immediately. for seniors right now. republicans took that same money and gave tax cuts to the rich. and that was the message that outside money spent to misrepresent. and that is why the election of barack obama was so very, very important, to protect medicare. even though we could not get the majority, we knew when he won that many of the issues -- affordable care, medicare